Jerry Remy announces he will return to Red Sox broadcast booth / Poll

Monday

Jan 27, 2014 at 2:59 PM

WATERTOWN, Mass. -- For months, Jerry Remy had no intention of ever broadcasting another Red Sox game on NESN.

Brian MacPherson Journal Sports Writer brianmacp

WATERTOWN, Mass. -- For months, Jerry Remy had no intention of ever broadcasting another Red Sox game on NESN. He couldn’t fathom how he possibly could talk about baseball again. There were times he couldn’t fathom getting out of his chair or leaving his house. The gravity of the death of Jennifer Martel, the mother of his 5-year-old granddaughter, and the arrest of his son Jared on charges of murdering her was too much to bear.

Though the shock and grief have never abated, Remy said, he began to realize that he had to get back to the life he’d lived before. He’d urged other family members to carry on with their lives in the aftermath of the unthinkable tragedy. He had to do the same.

After conversations with his wife and a small circle of friends, Remy made the decision last week that he would return to the NESN booth at Fenway Park next season, broadcasting Red Sox games for his 27th year. He announced that decision in a meeting with a small group of reporters on Monday at the NESN facility.

[remy-return-poll]

“I’m sure there will be people out there who will be very upset with me, and I'm sure there will be people that are happy I'm coming back,” he said. “I have no way to predict right now what the response is going to be. I know one thing: I work for very smart people here at NESN and with the Red Sox. If the response is overwhelmingly negative, they'll take care of it.”

Remy several times made sure to express his sympathy for the family of Jennifer Martel -- as he did in person in a courtroom, he said -- and his desire to be sensitive to the terrible loss they suffered.

“I must say that I hope in no way that my decision to come back to do games has a negative impact on the Martel family,” he said. “I’m quite certain they’ll understand that we have to make a living. Unfortunately, mine is in the public eye. I think they’ll understand that.”

By making the announcement now, a little more than a month before NESN broadcasts its first Grapefruit League game from Fort Myers, Fla., Remy said he hopes to focus solely on baseball when he resumes his work with longtime partner Don Orsillo.

Orsillo and Remy have long been known -- and widely beloved -- for their light-hearted banter during games. Some might perceive light-hearted banter from Remy to be inappropriate in light of what transpired last August. Remy said he would understand the sentiment.

When Orsillo met with Remy for the first time after deciding to return, Orsillo asked Remy if he thought they’d be able to banter as they once had.

“I said, ‘Don, I'm going to be myself,’” Remy said. “That's what I've always been. I don't see how else I can do it. If I didn't think I could be myself, I wouldn't do it. I hope that doesn't come off as insensitive. It may to some, but it's the only way I know how to do my job."

“If people think that's insensitive, I'm sure I'll hear about it.”

Jared Remy has been charged with the Aug. 15 murder of Martel -- “a beautiful woman” and “a wonderful mother,” Jerry Remy said. Jared Remy pleaded not guilty to the murder charge last October. His trial has been scheduled for Oct. 7.

“We can’t even imagine or feel the pain that the Martels are going through and have been going through daily since this tragedy,” he went on. “We’ve also gone through a lot of pain. I don’t want in any way to take away from what they’ve had to deal with, what they’ve had to go through, but (it was) by far the worst day of my life.”

Jerry Remy took an immediate leave of absence from NESN after the death of Martel in August. He said he didn’t watch any Red Sox games during the rest of the regular season but that he did watch the Red Sox during the playoffs, including the World Series.

A native of Somerset, Mass., Remy played three seasons with the California Angels and seven seasons with the Red Sox during his major-league career from 1975-84. He has called Red Sox games since 1988.

Remy twice smiled, if only weakly, during a conversation with reporters lasting more than 30 minutes. His eyes welled with tears when he spoke of his 5-year-old granddaughter and the life she faces without her mother. Remy and his wife are one of three parties who have applied for custody of 5-year-old Arianna Remy, he said.

Though Remy generally has avoided media coverage and online discussion of the trial of his son, he’s experienced some of the backlash directed toward him -- the father of a man charged with murder.

“Jared has had issues from a very young age,” he said. “We as a family have tried to do the best we possibly can to address those issues. It takes two to tango. Everybody knows about his past. I’ll be damned if my wife didn't do the best possible job any mother could do. I've tried to do the best possible job I could do.”

As Remy neared his decision to return to NESN and to Red Sox games, only a clean bill of health stood in his way. Remy missed most of the 2009 season as he recovered from lung cancer and suffered through depression, and he underwent radiation treatments for a relapse of lung cancer last March.

Remy underwent a CT scan 10 days ago. The scan came out clean.

Once that happened, Remy made the decision that he belonged alongside Orsillo in the NESN broadcast booth, not languishing at home in his disbelief, anger and sorrow.

“I can’t just sit in my chair,” he said. “I’ve been there long enough already.”